Two weeks, four regions, one very long shortlist.
Which Phang Nga boat actually stops to swim. What a Chiang Mai cooking class costs before the market walk is added. Whether Ayutthaya beats Kanchanaburi on a single spare day. Reviews of the tours you can book across Thailand.
The Krabi four-island day, by longtail
A temple morning, a wok, a speedboat and a set of ruins.
The four bookings a first Thai itinerary tends to hang off. What each one costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The first morningGrand Palace, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun Guided TourGrand Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun before the river heat arrives. Shoulders and knees covered, or the gate sends you back.
02The kitchen dayHalf-Day Thai Cooking Class at Organic Farm in Chiang MaiA farm outside Chiang Mai, a market basket and four dishes you cook yourself. The lunch is what you made.
03The Andaman dayMorning Speedboat Tour to Maya Bay with SnorkelMaya Bay on the first boat out, snorkel stops on the way back. Later departures share the bay with everybody else.
04The ruins dayAyutthaya Temples Guided Tour with LunchAyutthaya by road from Bangkok, with lunch. Brick stupas, a Buddha head held in fig roots, home by dark.
The Andaman and the Gulf decide half a Thai itinerary.
Limestone stacks you paddle under at Phang Nga, the four-island run out of Krabi, reef stops off Koh Tao where the water stays warm all year. Pick the hull and the coast, and the rest of the week arranges itself.
Bangkok: the river before nine, the kerbside after dark.
The whole Bangkok list →
Start at the palace while the marble is still bearable, cross to Wat Arun by ferry, then let the evening happen at plastic stools in Chinatown. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Wat Arun
One guided morning covers all three and the ferry between them. Turn up in a vest and the palace gate will hand you a wrap and a queue.
Damnoen Saduak and the train market
The boats thin out by mid-morning and the Maeklong awning trick only happens when a train is actually due, so the 6am pickup is the whole point.
Chinatown, on foot and hungry
Fifteen tastings through Yaowarat and the lanes behind it, ending somewhere with cold beer and a plastic stool. Come with an empty stomach.
Thai food is a street, a market and a wok, in that order.
Book the market walk before the heat, the class that ends as lunch, the Chao Phraya dinner boat for the one night you want the skyline. Half of what people remember about Thailand happened at a table.
The days out more travellers book than any others in Thailand.
The whole Thai catalogue →One pick per kind of day, so the list is eight different mornings rather than the same market trip sold by eight operators.
1
Damnoen Saduak Market and Maeklong Railway Market
Leave Bangkok for Maeklong Railway Market and Damnoen Saduak Floating Market on a seven-hour guided trip. Ride a boat through canal stalls, watch vendors clear the tracks for a passing train, and sample pad thai, noodle soup, or mango sticky rice. Early departures help you beat traffic and crowds. Guides speak English, German, or Japanese.
From · $25
Read our review →
2
Half-Day Thai Cooking Class at Organic Farm in Chiang Mai
from $29
3
Ayutthaya Temples Guided Tour with Lunch
from $28
4
Elephant Sanctuary, Waterfall & Bamboo Rafting
from $60
5
Doi Inthanon National Park Eco-Friendly Tour
from $46
6
Bangkok Canal Tour: 2-Hour Longtail Boat Ride
from $37
7
Muay Thai Boxing Tickets at Rajadamnern Stadium
from $31
8
Phang Nga Bay Sea Cave Canoeing & James Bond Island by Big Boat
from $99
What a Thai day out comes to, band by band.
Every tour on the site, grouped by the price it starts at. A large share of the best Thai days come in under the price of a mediocre dinner at home.
Temple mornings, market runs, a stadium ticket, the half-day snorkel hops out of the beach towns.
The full-day standards: Phang Nga by boat, the elephant sanctuaries, Ayutthaya and Kanchanaburi from Bangkok.
Private guides, chartered speedboats, diving courses and the one splurge a trip can carry.
Three Thai days that do not translate anywhere else.
Beaches and night markets exist all over the region. A morning spent feeding rescued elephants, a stadium where the music leads the fight, and a market that packs itself up eight times a day do not.
The sanctuary morning
Riding has largely gone from the reputable camps and feeding, bathing and walking alongside the herd has replaced it. Standards still vary a great deal between operators, so the useful questions are the dull ones: how many elephants, how much chain, how many visitors in a session, and whether bathing happens at all. The Chiang Mai valleys hold most of them, with a growing cluster behind Phuket and Khao Lak.
- 1Elephant Sanctuary, Waterfall & Bamboo Rafting★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 9,160 reviews
- 2Elephant Bathing Session at Krabi Elephant Shelter★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,021 reviews
- 3Elephant Care Program and Nursery Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,899 reviews
Four Thai bookings that run on somebody else’s calendar.
Most of this country can be sorted out the night before over a plate of noodles. These four answer to park seasons, ceremony days and fight cards, none of which take an interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Similan Islands Snorkeling Day Tour from PhuketThe Similan park closes to visitors through the southwest monsoon and reopens around the middle of October. Out of season no boat goes.
- 02Phi Phi Islands and Maya Bay Day Trip with LunchMaya Bay shuts every year for the reef recovery window in August and September, and swimming inside the bay itself stays off limits when it reopens.
- 03Grand Palace, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun Guided TourThe palace closes at short notice for royal ceremonies, and the dress code is enforced at the gate rather than politely suggested.
- 04Muay Thai Boxing Tickets at Rajadamnern StadiumStadium cards run on set fight nights rather than every evening, and the ringside rows go long before the upper tiers do.
The Thai downpour is an hour long and completely reliable.
From roughly May to October the afternoon storm arrives, empties the sky and leaves. It is not a lost day, it is a change of plan: get the boat or the temple done early, then be somewhere with a roof from two o’clock. Kitchens, stadiums, a cabaret room and a long covered lunch all qualify.
By place: river city, northern hills, two coasts
By kind of day — boat, temple, wok or trail
Bangkok, the old capital, the north, then south to the water.
Six Thai bases, and the best day out from each.
A river capital, a walled northern town, two Andaman beach towns, a Gulf island and the ruins upstream. Most itineraries are three of these in some order.
The Thai tours reviewed most recently.
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